Orbion Space Technology
Getting a lift with Orbion.
Orbion designs and builds specialized thrusters used to propel satellites into space. The request from Orbion was to design and develop a WordPress website that made it easier to generate high-value sales leads while visually separating them from their competitors.
My Role: Design Lead, UX/UI Design, and Strategy
Project Time: 8 Months
Challenge: Orbion needed their website to be redesigned to generate more quality leads and offer a self-service sales function.
Deep Space Discovery
Orbion designs and builds specialized thrusters used to propel satellites into space. The request from Orbion was to design and develop a WordPress website that made it easier to generate high-value sales leads while visually separating them from their competitors.
Most commonly, the Orbion website existed to create an avenue for their customers to gain enough information about the Orbion thrusters to decide if the configuration matches their mission specifics. Originally, the user would need to directly call Orbion and enter a manual process to receive the information they needed. The Orbion team needed a more automated system where their customers could learn and acquire the information they needed to make an informed decision.
Our charge was to provide the Orbion customer with a self-service calculation tool and a clear and easily navigable site that provides relevant information.
UX & Visual Prospecting
After a thorough audit of their old site and stakeholder interviews, we decided to create pages that would lead the user through the site using a choose-your-own-adventure approach. This ultimately presented the user with necessary decision-making tools early and as quickly as possible while always giving them a clear way of reaching out to Orbion.
Moodtile
Below is an example of a visual prospecting document I used to inform visual design after the UX cycle had ended. We were able to use these files to design multiple pages for each one of the concepts. This had a very positive impact on the timeline and budget.
Visual Design
We used dynamic values to create an almost near seamless experience from resolution to resolution. We used a mix of pages, templates, and atomic-inspired custom components to build the site's skeleton, allowing Orbion to have control over and swap out content as needed. The site owners can easily create new or edit existing pages based on the components I designed.
Thruster Configurator
We created this calculator to display a visual response (to scale) of the specific data related to the actual user’s mission. Depending on the data entered, the user was presented with the size of the fuel tank needed, how it compared to the size of the thruster, and a litany of supporting data that would be packaged with additional sales information and sent to the user’s email address. Orbion wanted their customers to be given everything they possibly could need to make the right and informed decision without ever needing to call or inquire.
Can you hear me Maj. Tom?
We surprised Orbion with this interactive depiction of the Solar System. This was a solution for presenting their successful mission information and proof of concept in an appealing and on-brand manner.
Product Viewer
The user is presented with the full thruster system, including a scale reference. Hovering each item displays detailed specifications and information relating to each item.
Client Reaction
No news is good news?
Once the site was launched and had final client approval, the client elected not to need further assistance in the form of a retainer. Therefore, the results of our work are currently unknown. Instead, we received amazing feedback from the internal team regarding how fun the site is and how it has granted them a better position above their competitors in their industry. This is always great to hear!
Post Mortem
Our team planned the Orbion website appropriately, and both agency and client teams worked seamlessly together to bring this site to the world. We did have some difficulties aligning schedules due to the primary stakeholder being a high-profile figure in the industry that required us to be a bit agile. Still, ultimately, we brought it all together.
I learned from this project that I need to be careful with my wireframe aesthetics. We noticed that using a kit influenced the overall design, which could present issues moving on to other clients and working from a similar kit. The kit I used created a very nice presentation for the client but was informing visual design before we were ready to address it, creating client hesitation in approving the site and content structure.